This invention relates to a receiving and conveying device for nestable bucket bodies formed by wrapping arcuate sheet blanks around a forming mandrel and adhesively bonding overlapping portions of each blank together. The inside and outside edges of the blank overlap each other, thus increasing the thickness of the bucket wall along the seam. Under normal prior art conditions, an arcuate sheet blank would be wrapped around a frustoconical forming mandrel after glue had been applied to the overlapping portions of the blank, then the so formed bucket body would be stripped from the forming mandrel and nestably accumulated in a rack on the forming machine awaiting removal and transfer to an adjoining machine by an operator. Normally, the accumulated bucket bodies would become tightly wedged together, thus requiring the operator to forcibly disengage a group of bucket bodies from the end of the accumulated column and strike the side of the group against a fixed surface to loosen the bucket bodies in the group from each other prior to placing the group onto the feed conveyor of the adjoining finishing machine whereat the bucket bottom closure could be secured to the small end of the bucket body and a rim could be formed on the large end thereof, one bucket at a time.
In attempting to automate the transfer of the groups of bucket bodies from one machine to the other, numerous problems were encountered. A principal problem involved separating the accumulated bucket bodies into small groups so they could be transferred laterally by a relatively simple conveyor. Another problem involved loosening the nested bucket bodies from each other so they could be reliably denested mechanically on the adjoining machine for finishing operations.